Post-Storm Brooklyn Looting Shows Importance Of Gun Rights, Says SAF

Looting in Brooklyn, N.Y. as Hurricane Sandy moved out underscores the importance of the right to keep and bear arms, especially in an emergency, the Second Amendment Foundation said today.

“A story in today’s Huffington Post[2] tells about a pharmacy worker who could only watch as people started walking down the street robbing stores,” said SAF Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb. “But so many shopkeepers are defenseless to stop this, thanks to the anti-gun policies of Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

“After this,” he mused, “should anyone wonder why we are suing Bloomberg and the City of New York[3] over their handgun permitting process?”

The Huffington Post[2] said looting began even before flood waters[4] had subsided. Thieves stole fromdrug stores,[5] banks and other shops. One pharmacy manager said the storm and looting “breaks the business.”

“People should be able to protect their lives and livelihoods,” Gottlieb observed, “especially in the wake of a natural disaster. Despite one report that there is a New York[6] cop stationed on every block, business owners[7] must have the means to defend what’s theirs.”

He recalled that in 2005, SAF successfully sued the City of New Orleans[8] to halt illegal firearm confiscations when social order completely broke down and citizens were on their own for days after Hurricane Katrina.[9]

“Our prayers are with the victims of this disaster all along the East Coast,” Gottlieb said. “We encourage all Americans to support relief efforts[10] however they can.

“But,” he added, “we also hold Bloomberg and his cronies, and their counterparts in New Jersey,[11]partly accountable for losses to looters because business and property owners have been continually deprived of the means to discourage or stop looters.

“People have lost a lot,” he concluded. “They should not lose what’s left because of regressive anti-gun laws that have been perpetuated by Bloomberg and others to keep them defenseless.”

The Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org[12]) is the nation’s oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 600,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control.[13]